mementomori

Sorry autopilot, I forgot to reply to you. So, if you have this and Wildhoney, you already possess the best that Tiamat has come up with. Sumerian Cry is a good death metal album in the early Entombed style, a bit darker, but it doesn't really fit with the rest of their discography. I advise against Astral Sleep; it's still rough and immature. Clouds is not bad and I would give it a listen, although it doesn't seem to have stood the test of time, and today it sounds a bit plastic, anachronistic, and not always inspired. As for the new Tiamat, the story changes: Skeleton Skeletron was, for me, a huge disappointment—short and simple tracks for rather banal rock, end of the poetry (although some songs are really good); Judas Christ is slightly better, now framed in a dark metal style akin to HIM, but the average quality of the songs remains mediocre; Prey, finally, hailed as a return to former glories, recaptures the heaviness and atmosphere of the past, updated to the sensuous and gimmicky standards of the new era, but something is broken, and I even liked it less than its two predecessors (a few songs are truly great, but that’s not enough to save a work that is overall mediocre). I continue to follow them because I’ve grown attached to them, but I acknowledge that they’ve reached their end. The inspiration of the past has really faded, but I want to give them one last chance (even though I’m not very hopeful). The ratings: Sumerian: 2; Astral: 2; Clouds: 3; Wildhoney: 5; A Deeper: 4; Skeleton: 3; Judas: 3; Prey: 3.

I'm sorry Stoopid, I don't know what to say, I didn't know they participated in a soundtrack...

Dear core-a-core, the 4 is simply due to the placement of the album in Tiamat's discography, a step below Wildhoney, which I consider one of the greatest things in all of music... While previously Tiamat, in search of their own personal path, were truly something unique, with A Deeper, despite some excellent results, they have somewhat lost their individuality by embracing new sounds. And then, while they used to be a perfect machine, in A Deeper one can notice some flaws, a few somewhat trivial episodes (Alteration x 10, Whores of Babylon, the same Cold Seed, which is still enjoyable), and especially a slightly more simplistic approach, particularly at the technical level, in arrangements and production (Gaia remains something from another planet, in my opinion). The fact remains that it is a superlative work, and when taken on its own, it truly deserves a 5.

mother is on the self-titled album from '88 and is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs ever written by Danzig... if you like mother, feel free to go ahead, the rest is more or less of the same stuff...

You're right, I'm mistaken, but there was a all-female group in the early nineties called Sigh... or maybe it was just a blunder by some idiot reviewer from Flash... who knows...

But look who you're bringing back to my mind... a note, August, (I could be wrong), but weren't there three girls "i" Sigh? I know, you wouldn't guess it from the voice, but I seem to remember they caused a stir precisely for that reason. I also owned the aforementioned CD for a while, but it didn't last long in my house: at the time it sounded too disorganized, imprecise, and out of tune, even by the standards of the genre. I should listen to it again today to give an objective judgment...

I almost forgot the (expected) vote for the review.

one question, tepes (maybe you've been asked this but I didn't exist yet)... do you have these records? Did you buy them in the frenzy of youth and now look at them with paternal contempt? How do you know all these bands that lasted half a season and are forgotten, most of the time you're the first to scorn them yourself? Past mistakes, or a morbid curiosity for all that is rotten? Crazy collector or just a calling of the disseminator with meticulous research behind? You’re not buying them for us, to keep us from danger, are you? Because if that were the case, you wouldn't just be the piero angela of gore, but even the real Jesus Grind Super Star!

What you're saying is true, alefearsatan, but don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to say that Sepultura have become Pantera-ized: Sepultura is an enormous band, their personality is too strong, and the hardcore influences are undeniable. However, if you take the more thrash-oriented tracks, it's also undeniable the presence of Pantera, who the year before had truly made a splash with Vulgar (after all, Pantera have always been viewed with interest, even by old legends like Slayer and even by Rob Halford, who considered them a revolution in metal and went on to mimic them in his Fight)... but back to Sepultura, take for example certain riffs from War of Territory (which remind me of A New Level, especially in the first minute): those things Sepultura had never done, even though they sound 100% Sepultura... and throughout the album, here and there you find broken, surgical riffs that obsessively repeat the same note, and in them, I see the lesson from Pantera, naturally reinterpreted and masterfully crafted by Sepultura (after all, Vulgar is from '92 and Chaos from '93, doubt can arise, right? Sepultura don’t live in a glass bell...) at least this is my impression...

Stay calm, troop, you didn't say anything out of this world. Pantera has undoubtedly been one of the most influential bands of the nineties, contributing to the revitalization of classic metal, the kind from the eighties, which was starting to show signs of creative stagnation, especially in terms of stylistic renewal rather than compositional value... the style of Dimebag and Vinnie was something truly new for the time, and it's no coincidence that old-school thrash (Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax, etc.) went into crisis during those years, while a new wave of modern metal, like that of Meshuggah (but also the chaos of Sepultura or the Demanufacture of Fear Factory) owes a lot to Pantera's music, particularly to their guitar riffing. Unfortunately, there have also been negative consequences, such as the now widespread belief that to play heavy metal, all you need is groove, low frequencies, and a crushing riff... resulting in many amateurs playing metal and lowering the overall standard. But this is certainly not the fault of Pantera... respect...